1. Field of the Invention
The present technology relates to a storage medium having a game program stored thereon and a game apparatus, and more particularly to a storage medium having stored thereon a game program for use with a computer game for which a pointing device such as a touch panel is employed and a game apparatus.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventionally, well known is an input method in which an input magnitude and an input direction are determined based on coordinates designated by a pointing device. An input device operated using a touch panel by a player is developed as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 11-53115 (hereinafter, referred to as Patent Document 1). As shown in FIG. 3 of Patent Document 1, the input device as disclosed in Patent Document 1 determines a movement direction and a movement distance of a cursor based on a direction and distance between the center of the touch panel and touch coordinates at which the player touches the touch panel.
Here, a player will touch-operate a touch panel with an instrument such as a stylus or will directly touch-operate a touch panel with his or her finger. In general, when a player drags, on a touch panel, a stick type instrument such as a stylus, the stick type instrument tends to make its drag distance longer than the player directly operates the touch panel with his or her finger even if the player attempts to drag the stick type instrument and the finger over the same distance. This is because a distance between a position at which the player holds the stick type instrument and a position at which the stick type instrument (that is, a tip of the instrument) touches the touch panel is long, and therefore the stick type instrument has a longer distance between a fulcrum and a point of action for controlling the touch panel as compared to a case where the player directly touch-operates a touch panel with his or her finger. Accordingly, the player feels that controllability is different depending on a method in which the player touch-operates the touch panel. The player will also feel that controllability is different depending on how old the player is, how skillfully the player controls a touch panel, and the like.
However, the input device as disclosed in Patent Document 1 calculates a direction and distance between touch coordinates and the center of a touch panel according to a player's touch-operation so as to determine two parameters (a direction and a movement distance), and the method for determining two parameters cannot be changed. Accordingly, the aforementioned input device provides a touch panel which does not allow a player to adjust controllability, and the player has to perform game play feeling that controllability depends on, for example, the player's skill, and a method for controlling the touch panel as described above.